A bit of a restless night for us as we continue to acclimatize to the time change. Our alarms went off simultaneously at 7 am and I hit the shower first.
Once ready, we headed out to the bus stop right outside the hotel and grabbed the U3 back over to the Central Station at Terminal 2. From here, we jumped on to the Heathrow Express and headed into Paddington Station.
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| Paddington Station |
From Paddington we had to make a change and go to Oxford Station and connect to a northbound train to Euston. (Due to a rail line closure) Tube Map here We then got on the Northwestern Railway to Bletchley Park departing at 10:23.
A bit of extra walking as we fumbled our way around the different platforms. The train made a few stops but we arrived in Bletchley at 11:01.
It was just a short walk up the road to the entrance..... very convenient! Kelly had a Two for One coupon on her phone and they honored it. Very nice of them as we were supposed to print it out... she didn't pack the printer!
A quick coffee and croissant and then we wandered the property.
The story of Bletchley was conveyed in the historic buildings with explanations of how the group worked. Three shift's a day x 3000 people meant this place was jammed with 9000 people at it's height in 1945. The best part for myself was how the Enigma machine was made and modified over the years to make it even harder to crack. The folks at Bletchley used all sorts of methods to break codes and eventually created machines to help crack these codes and in turn produced the first computer (Colossus) to do the job in hours versus weeks.
Enigma machines.... they were later modified with additional wheels to increase the possible number combinations.
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| Enigma Machine - Note the additional wheel in this version. |
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| Colossus |
The
Lorenz SZ40 Cipher was used by the German's for the highest level of
encryption. It added a separate digit to the beginning and end of the
sequence that was random (sort of). It contained 12 wheels and had 16
million, million, million different combinations! (that's 1.6
quintillion) It used teletype and radio equipment to send messages.
To crack these sequences and produce a clear message in German, the Colossus was developed and after some tweaking, had successfully cracked the code and the German communications were fully compromised without them knowing. Bletchley Park Wikki here
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| The Mansion used by staff. |
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| Main Library converted to a working office. |
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| Kelly found a comfortable chair! |
On the 15:40 train to Euston after grabbing a geocache right by the station.
Once back at Euston, we transferred to Oxford Station via train but it was super crowded! We decided to bail and head up to the street level and wander around. Look!!! Selfridges and Marks & Spencer! Who knew! Well I think Kelly did :-)
A bit of shopping completed, we grabbed the tube at Bond Street and headed to Paddington Station. A cool drink was in order so we stopped at the Beer House to wet the whistle.
We grabbed some food and then jumped on the Heathrow Express back to Terminal 2 and the Central Bus Station. Back at the hotel at 20:30. We checked in for our flight tomorrow and planned an early get up to catch the 08:50 departure to Glasgow. We will grab the 06:49 Bus #423 outside in the morning and seven minutes later we should be there.
We have been in contact with Cody and the North Stratton Pipe Band has safely arrived in Glasgow (already had a practice!). We hope to see him/them tomorrow at some point.
Some blogging and repacking and now it's time to hit the rack. Glasgow tomorrow!
Steps today: 18,430
